---
title: Modern Philosophy
description: This topic examines Western philosophy from the 17th through the 19th centuries, focusing on rationalism, empiricism, and the Enlightenment. You will study influential thinkers like Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Hegel.
category: social-sciences
subcategory: philosophy
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/modern-philosophy
---

# Modern Philosophy

This topic examines Western philosophy from the 17th through the 19th centuries, focusing on rationalism, empiricism, and the Enlightenment. You will study influential thinkers like Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Hegel.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 2 Courses • 1 Websites

## Courses

### 1. Modern Philosophy: Descartes to Kant

Explore key ideas in modern philosophy, from Descartes to Kant, with insightful lectures by Gregory B. Sadler. Start learning now!

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3CAC6CDCA5C5765E

**Tags:** modern-philosophy, descartes, kant, lectures, history-of-philosophy

### 2. History of Philosophy

The University of Edinburgh's fourteen-module survey, taught by nine researchers, covering epistemology, philosophy of science, mind, morality, political obligation, and free will. Students come away able to state each field's core problem and follow the standard arguments on both sides.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/philosophy

**Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, humanities

## Books

### 1. Meditations on First Philosophy

**Author:** René Descartes

Descartes' 1641 work in the Cambridge Texts edition, with selections from the Objections and Replies. Readers follow the method of doubt to the cogito, the proofs of God, and the argument separating mind from body.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521558182?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy

### 2. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

**Author:** John Locke

Locke's 1689 treatise in the Clarendon scholarly edition: the attack on innate ideas, the derivation of all knowledge from sensation and reflection, primary and secondary qualities, personal identity, and the limits of what we can know.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198245955?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy

### 3. Critique of Pure Reason

**Author:** Immanuel Kant

Kant's 1781 attempt to fix the limits of metaphysics, in Norman Kemp Smith's translation. Covers space and time as forms of intuition, the categories, and why reason falls into antinomies when it argues beyond experience.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312450109?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy

## Websites

### 1. earlymoderntexts.com

Early Modern Texts is a digital library of primary sources from the early modern period (roughly 1500–1700), offering free, carefully edited texts for study and teaching. It provides scholarly introductions, annotations, and tools to explore foundational works in philosophy and related fields.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://earlymoderntexts.com

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy

---

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